Business Technology
Program Assessment Plan
2001-2002

Program/Discipline Mission Statement

The mission of the Business Technology Department at Arapahoe Community College is to facilitate student learning and meet the needs of the ever-changing business community by providing relevant and up-to-date curriculum. The BTE department is committed to using appropriate instructional strategies and effective use of the latest technology. The BTE department will continually assess student achievement for the purpose of ongoing improvement and life-long learning.

The purpose of the Business Technology Department is to provide coursework that teaches the skills necessary for students to become employed as entry-level support staff in the office environment. This coursework can be combined into professional series, certificate or degree program designed to keep up with the demand for highly skilled office professionals as the use of technology changes and increases.

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Students will be able to meet industry standards for Keyboarding.
   a. In Keyboarding I students will be able to key for one minute at 20 words per minute with two errors or less.
   b. In Keyboarding II students will be able to key for three minutes at 40 words per minute with one error or less per minute.
   c. In Advanced Keyboarding students will be able to key for five minutes at 55 words per minute with one error or less per minute.
2. Students will demonstrate competency using Word Processing.
3. Students will be able to create documents using desktop publishing techniques.
4. Students will be able to use the ten key pad by touch.
5. Students will be able to integrate office skills on the job.
6. Students will be able to use filing rules to create an Access database.

Outcomes assessed during 2001-2002

The BTE Department chose to assess Intended Learning Outcomes 1a, 1b, and 1c shown above. These three keyboarding classes are sequenced and designed to build the student's skill level to industry standards. Keyboarding Pro Multimedia software is used in Keyboarding I (BTE 100) to introduce the touch method of keyboarding and to build skill to the level of 20 words per minute. Keyboarding II (BTE 102) introduces formatting of business letters, memos, and reports using Microsoft Word, and also includes a skill building component of timed writings which builds the keyboarding speed further. Advanced Keyboarding using Word Processing (BTE 200) has students keyboarding documents in proper format from unarranged form and also includes a skill-building component of timed writings to assess their keyboarding speed and accuracy.

Keyboarding I (BTE 100) is a seven-week course which is followed by Keyboarding II (BTE 102) during the second seven-week period in the semester. After successful completion of these two courses, the student then takes Advanced Keyboarding using Word Processing (BTE 200) the following semester.

The BTE Department also offers another keyboarding course, Keyboarding Skill Development (BTE 101) which is not included in this assessment. The purpose of this course is strictly skill building. Through diagnostic timed writings, the students in this course can expect to increase their keyboarding speed from 12 to 17 words per minute.

Procedures to assess learning outcomes

1. Measure keyboarding skill of all students in Keyboarding I(BTE 100) on one-minute timed writings using Keyboarding Pro Multimedia software and text passages from their textbooks.
2. Measure keyboarding skill of all students in Keyboarding II(BTE 102) on three-minute timed writings using Keyboarding Pro Multimedia software and text passages from their textbooks.
3. Measure keyboarding skill of all students in Advanced Keyboarding using Word Processing(BTE 200) on five-minute timed writings using Keyboarding Pro Multimedia software and timed writings selected by the instructor.

Assessment method

• The students printed out each timed writing showing the student’s name, date, time of day, number of gross words per minute, and number of minutes timed.
• The student circled errors on each timed writing.
• The instructor then checked it for accuracy to determine whether or not the test was within the error limit.
• The instructor recorded each timed writing on a permanent record for each student and kept the best timed writing for each student for the program assessment.
• The results were recorded by the Department Chair using rubrics for each course which assessed speed and accuracy.

Results for Keyboarding I (BTE 100)

There was an online section of BTE 100 with 11 students enrolled. The classroom section of BTE 100 contained 24 students.

Ten of the 11 students in the online section of BTE 100 completed the course. The student that did not complete the course did not turn in any work. All of the 10 students who completed the course attained the required keyboarding speed of 20 words per minute in a one-minute timed writing with two errors or less, which is the acceptable criteria for Keyboarding I. Only one of those students' speed was between 20 and 25 words per minute. Nine of the students had keyboarding speeds of more than 25 words per minute.

Twenty-one of the 24 students enrolled in the classroom section of BTE 100 completed the course. All the 21 students who completed the course attained the required keyboarding speed of 20 word per minute in a one-minute timed writing with two errors or less, which is the acceptable criteria for Keyboarding I. Five of those students' speeds were between 20 and 25 words per minute. Sixteen students had keyboarding speeds of more than 25 words per minute.

Conclusions and recommendations for Keyboarding I (BTE 100)

In this sample of students from Keyboarding I during Spring semester 2002, all the students who completed the course met the keyboarding speed and accuracy requirements for the course. We feel that the software does a good job of introducing the keyboard and building skill. Therefore, we will continue to use the Keyboarding Pro Multimedia software and the textbook that accompanies it for our instruction in Keyboarding I.

Results for Keyboarding II ( BTE 102)

Twenty-two students enrolled in Keyboarding II (BTE 102) for the Spring 2002 semester. Twenty-one of those students completed the course. Of those 21 students, only 10 attained the required keyboarding speed of 40 words per minute with three errors or less in a three-minute timed writing. Six of the students reached the speeds between 31 and 39 words per minute. Three students' highest timed writing speeds were between 20 and 30 words per minute.

The timed writing grade for BTE 102 is only a part of the final course grade. Therefore, all 21 of these students passed the course even though some of them did not reach the speed requirement for timed writings.

Conclusions and recommendations for Keyboarding II (BTE 102)

Over one-half of the students in BTE 102 are not reaching the required keyboarding speeds. There are two recommendations:
1. Increase the number of timed writings required each week for students in BTE 102, so that they will spend more time building their skill.
2. Advise students whose best speeds are between 20 and 25 words per minute to take BTE 101 (Keyboarding Skill Development) before taking BTE 102.

Results for Advanced Keyboarding using Word Processing

Eight students enrolled for Advanced Keyboarding using Word Processing (BTE 200). This is the third course in the keyboarding sequence, and it is taken by students working in both certificate and degree programs. All eight students successfully completed the course with a passing grade, however, only three (37.5%) of the students attained the required speed of 55 words per minute with one error or less per minute on a five-minute timed writing. Three of the students reached a speed of 40 to 54 words per minute, and two of the students' highest speeds were between 30 and 40 words per minute. Again, the timed writing grade is only a part of the final course grade in BTE 200, so it is possible to pass the course without reaching the required speed on timed writings.

Conclusions and recommendations for Advanced Keyboarding using Word Processing

It is very important to the BTE Department that students reach the industry standards of 55 words per minute by the time they complete the series of keyboarding courses in the BTE program if we are to prepare students for a job in today's office environment.

There are three recommendations:

1. Assign diagnostic timed writings in addition to the timed writings required by the course to increase a student's skill level.
2. Increase the number of timed writings assigned each week, so students will spend more time skill building.
3. Advise students with a skill level of 30 to 40 words per minute to take BTE 101 (Keyboarding Skill Development) before taking BTE 200.

The BTE Department Chairperson will report these results to the Assessment Committee, the Division Dean, and the BTE Advisory Committee.